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There are few expectations for Kerry’s visit, although Israeli officials welcomed Kerry’s strong statements on the wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis over the past two months that have left 23 Israelis dead and dozens wounded.
Ahmad Majdalani, member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Xinhua that the Palestinian side doesn’t see any “serious indications” to the resumption of peace talks, or at least implementing the bilateral agreement.
The Palestinian health ministry said that 97 Palestinians had been killed in violent confrontations with Israel.
None of the leaders themselves offered any encouragement that peace might be possible right now.
Part of the Netanyahu-Kerry meeting was held with only Netanyahu’s chief envoy to the Palestinians, Yitzhak Molcho, and the US’s current Middle East envoy, Frank Lowenstein, participating.
The visit follows the deadliest week so far in the latest outburst of violence that erupted in mid-September over tensions surrounding a sensitive Jerusalem holy site and quickly spread across Israel and into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many of them were teenagers.
More than 90 Palestinians have been killed at the hands of Israelis since the beginning of October.
On Monday, a Palestinian had reportedly stabbed two Israeli soldiers on the edge of the West Bank on Monday, killing one of them before being shot dead, the Israeli army said.
Before departing Abu Dhabi, Kerry called to offer his condolences to the family of Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old yeshiva student from MA, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank last week. You destroyed the two-state solution. Ahead of his trip, Kerry conceded he was coming without the ambitious agenda of past visits and was primarily focused on stemming the violence.
“Palestinians venerate terror instead of the value of life, it is time to end the ongoing Palestinian terror against Israel”, he said.
Many of them have been young people, including teenagers, reflecting anger and lost hope over Israel’s occupation, the Palestinians’ fractured leadership and the complete lack of progress in peace efforts, some analysts say. Netanyahu also said work permits would be revoked for the families of those who carry out such attacks.
Khatib also said that Abbas will ask Kerry to pressure Israel to ease restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinians.
Without confirming Netanyahu’s demand, State Department spokesman Mark Toner categorically rejected that possibility.
The militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement said the attack, near the city of Nablus, was “a heroic response to John Kerry plans to abort the intifada [Palestinian uprising]”. For the Israelis, that means holding off on construction of new settlements in lands the Palestinians seek for their future state.
Abbas accused Israel of working toward destroying the two-state solution and “consolidating an apartheid regime” in the Palestinian territories. Palestinians say that any attempt to expand building in the West Bank must be rejected.
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A Palestinian fatally stabbed an Israeli soldier at a West Bank gas station Monday before he was killed by security forces, and two Palestinian teenage girls in Jerusalem attacked a 70-year-old Palestinian, apparently mistaking him for an Israeli.
